QL 795 

J4 S52 

1918 



i 




Class. 
Book, 




*IS Drawings ^ 
ERNEST THOMPSON SETON ^ 




Author o^ 



^1 of the S&ndhill Stag 

■umeds I Heive Knovn 

', P^zH^rRy of Aniinfe^ls 

MiMirinia^ls of M&nitobow 

Birds of Mo4iitot>d* 



Published by th. Ce.itx,ry co. New Yorfc.A*D49I8 




V .C^ Copyright. 1899. 1900, by 
\A^ The Century Co. 

Copyright. 1900. by 
Ernest Seton-Thompson. 



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First 

Impression 

April 

14 

1900 

Second 

Impression 

November 

26 

1900 

Third 

Impression 

January 

15 

1901 

Fourth 

Impression 

June 

20 

1901 

Fifth 

Impression 

April 

1902 



Sixth 

Impression 

May 

1 
1903 

Seventh 

Impression 

May 

10 

1904 

Eighth 

Impression 

February 

15 

1906 

Ninth 

Impression 

October 

4 

1907 

Tenth 

Impression 

June 

1 

1910 



Eleventh 

Impression 

November 

1 

1912 

Twelfth 

Impression 

September 

29 

1914 

Thirteenth 

Impression 

October 

11 

1916 

Fourteenth 

Impression 

January 

29 

1918 

Fifteenth 

Impression 

June ' 

5 

1919 



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This Book is dedicated to the 
memory of the days spent at 
the Palette Ranch on the Gray- 
bull, where from hunter, miner, 
personal experience, and the 
host himself, I fathered many 
chapters of the History of Wahb. 




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In this Book the designs for title- 
pa^e, cover, and general make- 
up, were done by Mrs. Grace 
Gallatin Thompson Seton. 




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yon 

fwl ^ ^ 3.23 



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List of 
Full- Page Drawings 

Page 

They all Rushed Under it like a Lot 

of Little Pigs 14 

Like Children Playing * Hands ^ . • . 18 
He Stayed in the Tree till near Morn- 
ing 32 

A Savage Bobcat . . • Warned Him to 

go Back 44 

Wahb Yelled and Jerked Back . . 50 

He Struck one Fearful, Crushing Blow 74 

AinH He an Awful Size, Though? . . 90 

Wahb Smashed His Skull . • . . 102 
Causing the Pool to Overflow . . .113 
He Deliberately Stood up on the Pine 

Root 142 

The Roachback Fled into the Woods . 1 50 

He Paused a Moment at the Gate • 165 



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Part I 

THE CUBHOOD OF WAHB 







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'E was born over a 
score of years a^o^ 
away up in the wild- 
est part of the wild 
West, on the head of 
the Little Piney, above where the 
Palette Ranch is now. 

His Mother was just an ordinary 
Silvertip, living the quiet life that 
all Bears prefer, minding her own 
business and doin^ her duty by her 
family, asking no favors of any one 
excepting to let her alone- 






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It was July before she took her \y 

remarkable family down the Little 
Piney to the GraybuU, and showed 
them what strawberries were, and 
where to find them. 

Notwithstanding their Mother^s 
deep conviction, the cubs were not 
remarkably bi^ or bright; yet they 
were a remarkable family, for there 
were four of them, and it is not 
often a Grizzly Mother can boast 
of more than two* 

The woolly-coated little crea- 
tures were having a fine time, and 
reveled in the lovely mountain sum- 
mer and the abundance of good 
things. Their Mother turned over 
each log and flat stone they came 
to, and the moment it was lifted 
they all rushed under it like a lot 



* 9frit f:-Q 



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of little pi^s to lick up the ants and 
^rubs there hidden. 

It never once occurred to them 
that Mammy^s strength mi^ht fail 
sometime, and let the ^reat rock 
drop just as they ^ot under it; nor 
would any one have thought so 
that mi^ht have chanced to see 
that hu^e arm and that shoulder 
sliding about under the ^reat yel- 
low robe she wore* No, no; that 
arm could never faih The little 
ones were quite ri^ht. So they 
hustled and tumbled one another 
at each fresh lo^ in their haste to 
be first, and squealed little squeals, 
and growled little growls, as if each 
was a pi^, a pup, and a kitten all 
rolled into one* 

They were well acquainted with 



the common little brown ants that 
harbor under lo^s in the uplands^ 
but now they came for the first time 
on one of the hills of the ^reat, fat, 
luscious Wood-ant, and they all 
crowded around to lick up those 
that ran out* But they soon found 
that they were licking up more cac- 
tus-prickles and sand than ants, till 
their Mother said in Grizzly, ^^ Let 
me show you how/^ 

She knocked off the top of the 
hill, then laid her great paw flat on 
it for a few moments, and as the 
angry ants swarmed on to it she 
licked them up with one lick, and 
got a good rich mouthful to crunch, 
without a grain of sand or a cactus- 
stinger in it* The cubs soon learned* 
Each put up both his little brown 
paws, so that there was a ring of 
paws all around the ant-hill, and 




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•^rJ>f;t ottun 



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"like children playing 'hands'" 



there they sat^like children playing 
^ hands/ and each licked first the 
ri^ht and then the left paw, or one 
cuffed his brother^s ears for licking 
a paw that was not his own, till the 
ant-hill was cleared out and they 
were ready for a change. 

Ants are sour food and made the 
Bears thirsty, so the old one led 
down to the riven After they had 
drunk as much as they wanted, and 
dabbled their feet, they walked 
down the bank to a pool, where the 
old one^s keen eye caught sight of 
a number of Buffalo-fish basking 
onthebottom* The water was very 
low, mere pebbly rapids between 
these deep holes, so Mammy said 
to the little ones: 

^^ Now you all sit there on the 
bank and learn something new/^ 

First she went to the lower end 



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of the pool and stirred up a cloud kLJ 

of mud which hun^ in the still 
water, and sent a lon^ tail floating 
like a curtain over the rapids just 
below* Then she went quietly 
round by land, and sprang into the 
upper end of the pool with all the 
noise she could* The fish had 
crowded to that end, but this sud- 
den attack sent them off in a panic, 
and they dashed blindly into the 
mud-cloud* Out of fifty fish there 
is always a good chance of some 
being fools, and half a dozen of 
these dashed through the darkened 
water into the current, and before 
they knew it they were struggling 
over the shingly shallow* The old 
Grizzly jerked them out to the 
bank, and the little ones rushed 



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noisily on these funny, short snakes 
that could not ^et away, and gob- 
bled and ^or^ed till their little 
bellies looked like balloons* 

They had eaten so much now, 
and the sun was so hot, that all 
were quite sleepy* So the Mother- 
bear led them to a quiet little nook, 
and as soon as she lay down, though 
they were puffing with heat, they 
all snu^^led around her and went 
to sleep, with theix' little brown paws 
curled in, and their little black noses 
tucked into their wool as though it 
were a very cold day. 

After an hour or two they be^an 
to yawn and stretch themselves, 
except little Fuzz, the smallest; 
she poked out her sharp nose for a 
moment, then snu^^led back be- 






^,,...^- „ -^^.<^' ^/^\\,f In,./; 













''"^ c^^""" ^^^ tween her Mother^s ^reat arms, \y 

for she was a gentle, petted little 
thin^. The largest, the one after- 
ward known as Wahb, sprawled 
over on his back and be^an to 
worry a root that stuck up, grum- 
bling to himself as he chewed it, 
or slapped it with his paw for not 
staying where he wanted it* Pres- 

y^y^\ ently Mooney, the mischief, began 



J . 2\>^ tugging at Frizzle^s ears, and got 

*"*^^lV^"V his own well boxed. They clenched 

\ w'^t^ ix ^^^ ^ tussle; then, locked in a 

h r ""x^TXll-^ ^^^^^y little grizzly yellow ball, they 

r:r. '^^ '^f^ sprawled over and over on the grass, 

and, before they knew it, down a 
bank, and away out of sight toward 
the riven 

Almost immediately there was 
an outcry of yells for help from the 



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V^ little wrestlers. There could be no 

mistaking the real terror in their 
voices* Some dreadful danger was 
threatening. 

Up jumped the gentle Mother, 
changed into a perfect demon, and 
over the bank in time to see a hu^e 
Ran^e-buU make a deadly charge 
at what he doubtless took for a yel- 
low do^. In a moment all would 
have been over with Frizzle, for he 
had missed his footing on the bank; 
but there was a thumping of heavy 
feet, a roar that startled even the 
^reat Bull, and, like a hu^e bound- 
ing ball of yellow fur. Mother Griz- 



zly was upon him. Him ! the mon- ^..^-^yp---'"'><i'V^- J 
arch of the herd, the master of all ^^'v^^'^v'^jj^ 

these plains, what had he to fear? v^/K^^'^^^ v^ 

He bellowed his deep war-cry, and "^ ' A^n "' * 







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Charged to pin the old one to the 
bank; but as he bent to tear her 
with his shining horns, she dealt 
him a stunning blow, and before he 
could recover she was on his shoul- 
ders, raking the flesh from his ribs 
with sweep after sweep of her ter- 
rific claws. 

The Bull roared with ra^e, and 
plunged and reared, dra^^in^ Mo- 
ther Grizzly with him ; then, as he 
hurled heavily off the slope^ she let 
^o to save herself, and the Bull 
rolled down into the riven 

This was a lucky thin^ for him, 
for the Grizzly did not want to fol- 
low him there ; so he waded out on 
the other side, and bellowing with 
fury and pain, slunk off to join the 
herd to which he belonged* 



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II 



JLD Colonel Pickett, 
the cattle kin^, was 
out riding the ran^e* 
The ni^ht before, he 
had seen the new 
moon descending over the white 
cone of Pickett^s Peak, 

^^ I saw the last moon over Frank^s 
Peak/^ said he/^and the luck was 
against me for a month; now I 
reckon it^s my turn/^ 

Next morning his luck be^an. 
A letter came from Washington 








^rantin^ bis request that a post- 
office be established at his ranch, 
and contained the polite inquiry^ 
^^What name do you suggest for 
the new post-office?^' 

The Colonel took down his new 
rifle, a 45-90 repeaten **May as 
well/' he said; ^Hhisismymonth''; 
and he rode up the Graybull to see 
how the cattle were doing. 

As he passed under the Rimrock 
Mountain he heard a far-away roar- 
ing as of Bulls fighting, but thought 
nothing of it till he rounded the 
point and saw on the flat below a 
lot of his cattle pawing the dust and 
bellowing as they always do when 
they smell the blood of one of their 
number. He soon saw that the 
great Bull,Uhe boss of the bunch/ 



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\^ Wcis covered with blood* His back 

and sides were torn as by a Moun- 
tain-lion, and his head was battered 
^s by another BulL 

^^ Grizzly/^ growled the Colonel^ 
for he knew the mountains. He 
quickly noted the general direction 
of the BuU/s back trail, then rode 
toward a high bank that offered a 
piew. This was across the gravelly 
ford of the GraybuU, near the 
mouth of the Piney. His horse 
splashed through the cold water 
and began jerkily to climb the other 
bank. 

As soon as the rider^s head rose 
above the bank his hand grabbed 
the rifle, for there in full sight were 
five Grizzly Bears, an old one and 
four cubs. 



''Run for the wcods," growled 
the Mother Grizzly, for she knew 
that men carried guns. Not that 
she feared for herself; but the idea 
of such things among her darlings 
was too horrible to think of. She 
set off to guide them to the timber- 
tangle on the Lower Piney. But 
an awful, murderous fusillade be- 

^^ ^,.. ...,-*'~i gan. 

f^'"'" '"'j-'./'T^fc ^angl and Mother Grizzly felt 

/r'>' r , \ #''•• 'a- '* a deadly pang. 
^i0^--\ j**^ <Eangl and poor little Fuzz rolled 

'"'■^*^ - -^"'V f °^^^ ^^"^ ^ scream of pain and lay 

"'^'~ f/ still. 

With a roar of hate and fury 

Mother Grizzly turned to attack 

the enemy. 

jsi^v5£u <Bang! and she fell paralyzed 

"^ and dying with a high shoulder 




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V^y shot* And the three little cubs, not 

knowing what to do, ran back to 
their Mother. 

^ang! bang! and Mooney and 
Frizzle sank in dyin^ agonies be- 
side her, and Wahb, terrified and 
stupefied, ran in a circle about 
them. Then, hardly knowing why, 
he turned and dashed into the tim- 
ber-tangle, and disappeared as a 
last bang left him with a stin^in^ 
pain and a useless, broken hind 
paw. 



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That is why the post-office was r^i^^- 

called Four-Bears. The Colonel L ff^ |^ 

seemed pleased with what he had [£pjs^pFfi^^^ 
done; indeed, he told of it himself. ''Ii^' ^^' 

But away up in the woods of rj ^ ^^ 

Anderson's Peak that nidht a little JSi ^d^'i^ 








lame Grizzly mi^ht have been seen 
wandering, limping cdon^^ leaving 
a bloody spot each time he tried to 
set down his hind paw; whining 
and whimperings ^^ Mother! Mo- 
ther! Oh, Mother, where are you?'' 
for he was cold and hungry, and 
had such a pain in his foot* But 
there was no Mother to come to 
him, and he dared not go back 
where he had left her, so he wan- 
dered aimlessly about among the 
pines* 

Then he smelled some strange 
animal smell and heard heavy foot- 
steps; and not knowing what else 
to do, he climbed a tree* Presently 
a band of great, long-necked, slim- 
legged animals, taller than his Mo- 
ther, came by under the tree* He 






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HE STAYED IN THE TREE TILL NEAR MORNING. 



had seen such once before and had 
not been afraid of them then, be- 
cause he had been with his Mothen 
But now he kept very quiet in the 
tree, and the bi^ creatures stopped 
picking the ^rass when they were 
near him, and blowing their noses, 
ran out of si^ht/ s 

He stayed in the tree till near \ 
morning, and then he was so stiff v 
with cold that he could scarcely 
^et down* But the warm sun came 
up, and he felt better as he sought 
about for berries and ants, for he 
was very hungry. Then he went 
back to the Piney and put his 
wounded foot in the ice-cold waten 

He wanted to ^et back to the 
mountains a^ain, but still he felt he 
must ^o to where he had left his 







Mother and brothers* When the 
afternoon ^rew warm, he went 
limping down the stream through 
the timber, and down on the banks 
of the Graybull till he came to the 
place where yesterday they had 
had the fish-feast; and he eagerly 
crunched the heads and remains 
that he found* But there was an 
odd and horrid smell on the wind* 
It frightened him, and as he went 
down to where he last had seen his 
Mother the smell ^rew worse* He 
peeped out cautiously at the place, 
and saw there a lot of Coyotes, tear- 
ing at something* What it was he 
did not know; but he saw no Mo- 
ther, and the smell that sickened 
and terrified him was worse than 
ever, so he quietly turned back 



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toward the timber-tangle of the 
Lower Piney, and nevermore came 
back to look for his lost family* 
He wanted his Mother as much 
as ever, but something told him it 
was no use. 

As cold ni^ht came down, he 
missed her more and more a^ain^ 
and he whim.pered as he limped 
alon^, a miserable, lonely, little, 
motherless Bear — not lost in the 
mountains, for he had no home to 
seek, but so sick and lonely, and 
with such a pain in his foot, and in 
his stomach a craving for the drink 
ihatwould nevermore be his. That 
night he found a hollow log, and 
crawling in, he tried to dream that 
his Mother^s great, furry arms were 
around him, and he snuffled him- 
self to sleep. 




Ill 



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^AHB had always 
been a gloomy little 
Bear; and the string 
of misfortunes that 
came on him just as 
his mind was forming made him 
more than ever sullen and morose* 
It seemed as though every one 
were against him* Hetriedto keep 
out of si^ht in the upper woods of 
the Piney, seeking his food by day 
and resting at ni^ht in the hollow 
lo^. But one evening he found it 
occupied by a Porcupine as bi^ as 



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himself and as bad as a cactus-bush* 
Wahb could do nothing with him* 
He had to ^ive up the lo^ and seek 
another nest* 

One day he went down on the 
Graybull flat to dig some roots that 
his Mother had taught him were 
good* But before he had well be- 
gun, a grayish-looking animal came 
out of a hole in the ground and 
rushed at him, hissing and growl- 
ing. Wahb did not know it was a 
Badger, but he saw it was a fierce 
animal as big as himself* He was 
sick, and lame too, so he limped 
away and never stopped till he was 
on a ridge in the next caiion* Here 
a Coyote saw him, and came bound- 
ing after him, calling at the same 
time to another to come and join 
the fun* Wahb was near a tree, so 











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he scrambled up to the branches^ \f/ 

The Coyotes came bounding and 
yelping below^ but their noses told 
them that this was a youn^ Grizzly 
they had chased^ and they soon de- 
cided that a youn^ Grizzly in a tree 
means a Mother Grizzly not far 
away^ and they had better let him 
alone* 

After they had sneaked off Wahb 
came down and returned to the 
Piney* There was better feeding 
on the Graybull^ but every one 
seemed against him there now that 
his loving guardian was ^one^ while 
on the Piney he had peace at least 
sometimes^ and there were plenty 
of trees that he could climb when 
an enemy came. 

His broken foot was a lon^ time 
in healing; indeed, it never ^ot quite 



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v!/ welL The wound healed and the 

soreness wore off, but it left a stiff- 
ness that ^ave him a slight limp, 
and the sole-balls ^rew together 
quite unlike those of the other foot. 
It particularly annoyed him when 
he had to climb a tree or run fast 
from his enemies; and of them he 
found no end, though never once 
did a friend cross his path. When 
he lost his Mother he lost his best 
and only friend. She would have 
taught him much that he had to 
learn by bitter experience, and 
would have saved him from most 
of the ills that befell him in his 
cubhood — ills so many and so dire 
that but for his native sturdiness 
he never could have passed through 
alive. 

The pinons bore plentifully that 



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year^ and the winds be^an to show- 
er down the ripe, rich nuts* Life 
was becoming a little easier for 
Wahb. He was ^ainin^ in health 
and strength, and the creatures he 
daily met now let him alone* But 
as he feasted on the pifions one 
morning after a gale, a great Black- 
bear came marching down the hilL 
* No one meets a friend in the 
woods, ^ was a byword that Wahb 
had learned already* He swung up 
the nearest tree* At first the Black- 
bear was scared, for he smelled the 
smell of Grizzly; but when he saw 
it was only a cub, he took courage 
and came growling at Wahb* He 
could climb as well as the little 
Grizzly, or better, and high as 
Wahb went, the Blackbear fol- 



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vy lowed, and when Wahb ^ot out on 

the smallest and highest twig that 
i^f would carry him, the Blackbear 
cruelly shook him off, so that he 
was thrown to the ground, bruised 
and shaken and half-stunned* He 
limped away moaning, and the only 
thing that kept the Blackbear from 
following him up and perhaps kill- 
ing him was the fear that the old 
Grizzly might be about* So Wahb 
was driven away down the creek 
from all the good pifion woods. 

There was not much food on the 
Graybull now* The berries were 
nearly all gone; there were no fish 
or ants to get, and Wahb, hurt, 
lonely, and miserable, wandered 
on and on, till he was away down 
toward the Meteetsee* 



"^^e^ %^#^ ^4^ '^^ ^^^ -4:?)^ 

m ^iT kl w w* W" 

i-sJi^"^ :^uJk^^ -r^JS^ '^^^'^ -^^^^l -^^^l 



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A Coyote came bounding and vV 

barking through the sa^e-brush 
after him, Wahb tried to run, but 
it was no use ; the Coyote was soon 
up with him. Then with a sudden 
rush of desperate courage Wahb 
turned and charged his foe. The 
astonished Coyote ^ave a scared 
yowl or two, and fled with his tail 
between his le^So Thus Wahb 
learned that war is the price of 
peace. 

But the forage was poor here; 
there were too many cattle; and 
Wahb was making for a far-away 
pinon woods in the Meteetsee 
Canon when he saw a man, just 
like the one he had seen on that 
day of sorrow. At the same mo- 
ment he heard a hang^ and some 




•*A SAVAGE BOBCAT . . . WARNED HIM TO GO BACK." 



sa^e-brusb rattled and fell just 
over his back. All the dreadful 
smells and dangers of that day 
came back to bis memory, and 
Wabb ran as be never bad run be- 
fore. 

He soon ^ot into a ^uUy and fol- 
lowed it into tbe canon. An open- 
ing between two cliffs seemed to 
offer shelter, but as he ran toward 
it a Ran^e-cow came trotting be- 
tween, shaking her head at him and 
snorting threats against his life. 

He leaped aside upon a lon^ lo^ 
that led up a bank, but at once a 
savage Bobcat appeared on the 
other end and warned him to go 
back. It was no time to quarrel. 
Bitterly Wabb felt that the world 
was full of enemies- But he turned 



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and scrambled up a rocky bank 
into the pinon woods that border 
the benches of the Meteetsee^ 

The Pine Squirrels seemed to 
resent his comin^^ and barked furi- 
ously* They were thinking about 
their pifion-nuts. They knew that 
this Bear was coming to steal their 
provisions, and they followed him 
overhead to scold and abuse him, 
with such an outcry that an enemy 
mi^ht have followed him by their 
noise, which was exactly what they 
intended. 

There was no one following, but 
it made Wahb uneasy and nervous^ 
So he kept on till he reached the 
timber line, where both food and 
foes were scarce, and here on the 
^ edge of the Mountain-sheep land 
-■^ -V at last he ^ot a chance to rest* 




^sn^ 




IV 

^AHB never was 

sweet-tempered like 
his baby sister, and 
the persecutions by 
his numerous foes 
were making him more and more 
soun Why could not they let him 
alone in his misery? Why was 
every one against him? If only 
he had his Mother back! If he 
could only have killed that Black- 
bear that had driven him from his 
woods! It did not occur to him 
that some day he himself would be 



bi^- And that spiteful Bobcat, that 
took advantage of him; and the 
man that had tried to kill him* He 
did not forget any of them, and 
he hated them alL 

Wahb found his new ran^e fairly 
^ood, because it was a ^ood nut 
yean He learned just what the 
Squirrels feared he would, for his 
nose directed him to the little gran- 
aries where they had stored up 
^reat quantities of nuts for winter^s 
use* It was hard on the Squirrels, 
but it was ^ood luck for Wahb, for 
the nuts were delicious food. And 
when the days shortened and the 
nights be^an to be frosty, he had 
^rown fat and well-favored* 

He traveled over all parts of the 
canon now, living mostly in the 



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\^ higher woods, but coming down at 
times to forage almost as far as the 
riven One ni^ht as he wandered 
by the deep water a peculiar smell 
reached his nose* It was quite 
pleasant, so he followed it up to the 
water's ed^e. It seemed to come 
from a sunken lo^* As he reached 
over toward this, there was a sud- 
den clank, and one of his paws was 
caught in a strong, steel Beaver- 
trap* 

Wahb yelled and jerked back 
with all his strength, and tore up 
the stake that held the trap* He 
tried to shake it off, then ran away 
through the bushes trailing it* He 
tore at it with his teeth ; but there 
it hun^, quiet, cold, strong, and im- 
movable* Every little while he 




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tore at it with his teeth and claws, v5/ 

or beat it against the ground* He 
buried it in the earth, then climbed 
a low tree, hoping to leave it be- 
hind; but still it clun^, biting into 
bis fleshy He made for his own 
woods, and sat down to try to 
puzzle it out* He did not know 
what it was, but his little ^reen- 
brown eyes glared with a mixture 
of pain, fright, and fury as he tried 
to understand his new enemy* 

He lay down under the bushes, 
and, intent on deliberately crushing 
the thin^, he held it down with one 
paw while he tightened his teeth 
on the other end, and bearing down 
as it slid away, the trap jaws opened 
and the foot was free* It was mere 
chance, of course, that led him to 



squeeze both springs at once* He 
did not understand it, but he did 
not forget it, and he ^ot these not 
very clear ideas : ^ There is a dread* 
ful little enemy that hides by the 
water and waits for one* It has an 
odd smelL It bites one^s paws and 
is too hard for one to bite* But it 
can be ^ot off by hard squeezing/ 

For a week or more the little 
Grizzly had another sore paw^ but 
it was not very bad if he did not do 
any climbing* 

It was now the season when the 
Elk were bu^lin^ on the mountains* 
Wahb heard them all night, and 
once or twice had to climb to get f 

away from one of the big-antlered . / 

Bulls* It was also the season when \ \ y 

the trappers were coming into the \ >\f /— 






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mountains, and the Wild Geese vfy 

were honking overhead. There 
were several quite new smells in 
the woods, too. Wahb followed 
one of these up, and it led to a 
place where were some small lo^s 
piled together; then, mixed with 
the smell that had drawn him, was 
one that he hated — he remem- 
bered it from the time when he had 
lost his Mother. He sniffed about 
carefully, for it was not very strong, 
and learned that this hateful smell 
was on a lo^ in front, and the 
sweet smell that made his mouth 
water was under some brush be- 
hind. So he went around, pulled 
away the brush till he ^ot the prize, 
a piece of meat, and as he grabbed 
it, the lo^ in front went down with 
a heavy chocks 



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It made Wahb jump ; but he ^ot 
away all ri^ht with the meat and 
some new ideas, and with one old 
idea made stronger, and that was, 
* When that hateful smell is around 
it always means trouble/ 

As the weather ^rew colder, 
Wahb became very sleepy; he 
slept all day when it was frosty* He 
had not any fixed place to sleep in ; 
he knew a number of dry ledges 
for sunny weather, and one or two 
sheltered nooks for stormy days* 
He had a very comfortable nest un- 
der a root, and one day, as it be^an 
to blow and snow, he crawled into 
this and curled up to sleep* The 
storm howled without* The snow 
fell deeper and deeper* It draped 
the pine-trees till they bowed, then 
shook themselves clearto be draped 



A^.. l^ ^^^^^ 










'■^^ifef^^ 



anew* It drifted over the moun- 
tains and poured down the funnel- 
like ravines^ blowing off the peaks 
and ridges, and filling up the hol- 
lows level with their rimSo It piled 
up over WahKs den, shutting out 
the cold of the winter, shutting out 
itself: and Wahb slept and slept* 



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ysej 




wl 

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Vsy 




[E slept all winter with- 
out wakin^^ for such 
is the way of Bears^ 
and yet when spring 
came and aroused 
him, he knew that he had been 
asleep a lon^ time. He was not 
much changed — he had ^rown in 
height, and yet was but little thin- 
ner. He was now very hungry, and 
forcing his way through the deep 
drift that still lay over his den, he 
set out to look for food* 



'!# 



ILt 



^ 



There were no pifion-nuts to ^et^ 
and no berries or ants ; but Wahb's 
nose led him away up the canon to 
the body of a winter-killed Elk, 
where he had a fine feast, and then 
buried the rest for future use* 

Day after day he came back till 
he had finished it* Food was very 
scarce for a couple of months, and 
after the Elk was eaten, Wahb lost 
all the fat he had when he awoke* 
One day he climbed over the Di- 
vide into the Warhouse Valley* It 
was warm and sunny there, vege- 
tation was well advanced, and he 
found ^ood forage* He wandered 
down toward the thick timber, and 
soon smelled the smell of another 
Grizzly* This ^rew stronger and 
led him to a single tree by a Bear- 
trail* Wahb reared up on his hind 



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i 



feet to smell this tree* Itwasstron^ 
of Bear, and was plastered with 
mud and Grizzly hair far higher 
than he could reach; and Wahb 
knew that it must have been a very 
lar^e Bear that had rubbed him- 
self there* He felt uneasy* He 
used to lon^ to meet one of his own 
kind^ yet now that there was a 
chance of it he was filled with 
dread* 

No one had shown him anything 
but hatred in his lonely, unprotected 
life, and he could not tell what this 
older Bear mi^ht do* As he stood 
in doubt, he caught sight of the old 
Grizzly himself slouching along a 
hillside, stopping from time to time 
to dig up the quamash-roots and 
wild turnips* 

He was a monster* Wahbinstinc- 



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tively distrusted him, and sneaked V!!/ 

away through the woods and up a 
rocky bluff where he could watch* 

Then the bi^ fellow same on 
Wahb^s track and rumbled a deep 
^rowl of an^er; he followed the 
trail to the tree, and rearing up, he 
tore the bark with his claws^ far 
above where Wahb had reached* 
Then he strode rapidly alon^ 
Wahb^straiL But the cub had seen 
enough* He fled back over the Di- 
vide into the Meteetsee Canon, and 
realized in his dim, bearish way 
that he was at peace there because 
the Bear-forage was so poon 

As the summer came on, his 
coat was shed* His skin ^ot very 
itchy, and he found pleasure in 
rolling in the mud and scraping his 



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back against some convenient tree. 
He never climbed now: his claws 
were too lon^, and his arms^thou^h 
^rowin^ bi^ and stron^^ were losing 
that suppleness of wrist that makes 
cub Grizzlies and all Blackbears 
great climbers. He now dropped 
naturally into the Bear habit of 
seeing how high he could reach 
with his nose on the rubbing-post, 
whenever he was near one. 

He may not have noticed it, yet 
each time he came to a post, after 
a week or two away, he could reach 
higher, for Wahb was growing fast 
and coming into his strength. 

Sometimes he was at one end of 
the country that he felt was his, 
and sometimes at another, but he 
had frequent use for the rubbing- 




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tree, and thus it was that his range \y 

was mapped out by posts with his 
own mark on them. 

One day late in summer he 
sighted a stranger on his land, a 
flossy Blackbear, and he felt furi- 
ous against the interloper. As the 
Blackbear came nearer Wahb no- 
ticed the tan-red face, the white 
spot on his breast, and then the bit 
out of his ear, and last of all the 
wind brought a whifi There could 
be no further doubt ; it was the very 
smell: this was the black coward 
that had chased him down the 
Piney lon^ a^o. But how he had 
shrunken! Before, he had looked 
like a ^iant; now Wahb felt he 
could crush him with one paw. Re- 
venue is sweet, Wahb felt, though 



he did not exactly say it, and he 
went for that red-nosed Bean But 
the Black one went up a small tree 
like a SquirreL Wahb tried to fol- 
low as the other once followed 
him, but somehow he could not* 
He did not seem to know how to 
take hold now, and after a while he 
^ave it up and went away^ although 
the Blackbear brought him back 
more than once by cou^hin^ in de- 
rision. Later on that day, when 
the Grizzly passed a^ain, the red- 
nosed one had ^one* 

As the summer waned, the up- 
per fora^e-^rounds be^an to ^ive 
out, and Wahb ventured down to 
the Lower Meteetsee one ni^ht to 
explore* There was a pleasant 
odor on the breeze, and following 






'^f 



4^' 






it up, Wahb came to the carcass 
of a Steen A ^ood distance away 
from it were some tiny Coyotes, 
mere dwarfs compared with those 
he remembered- Ri^ht by the car- 
cass was another that jumped 
about in the moonlight in a fool- 
ish way. For some strange reason 
it seemed unable to get away* 
Wahb^s old hatred broke out* He 
rushed up* In a flash the Coyote 
bit him several times before, with 
one blow of that great paw, Wahb 
smashed him into a limp, furry rag ; 
then broke in all his ribs with a 
crunch or two of his jaws. Oh, 
but it was good to feel the hot, 
bloody juices oozing between his 
teeth ! 

The Coyote was caught in a 








trap* Wahb hated the smell of the 
iron, so he went to the other side 
of the carcass, where it was not so 
strong, and had eaten but little be- 
fore clank^ and his foot was caught 
in a Wolf-trap that hehad not seen. 
But he remembered that he had 
once before been caught and had 
escaped by squeezing the trap* 
He set a hind foot on each spring 
and pressed till the trap opened 
and released his paw'* About the 
carcass was the smell that he knew 
stood for man, so he left it and wan- 
dered down-stream ; but more and 
more often he ^ot whiffs of that hor- 
rible odor, so he turned and went 
back to his quiet pinon benches* 



,^^ 



V2i 



/^«.^. 











I 



V 



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v£7 



Part II 

THE DAYS OF HIS STRENGTH 




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^AHB^S third sum- 
mer had brought 
him the stature of 
a large-sized Bear, 
though not nearly 
the bulk and power that in time 
were his. He was very light-col- 
ored now, and this was why Spah- 
wat, a Shoshone Indian who more 
than once hunted him, called him 
the Whitebear, or Wahb. 

Spahwat was a good hunter, and 
as soon as he saw the rubbing-tree 




on the Upper Meteetsee he knew 
that he was on the ran^e of a bi^ 
Grizzly. He bushwhacked the 
whole valley, and spent many days 
before he found a chance to shoot; 
then Wahb ^ot a stin^in^ flesh- 
wound in the shoulder. Hegrowled 
horribly, but it had seemed to take 
the fi^ht out of him ; he scrambled 
up the valley and over the lower 
hills till he reached a quiet haunt, 
where he lay down. 

His knowledge of healing was 
wholly instinctive. He licked the 
wound and all around it, and sought 
to be quiet. The licking removed 
the dirt, and by massage reduced 
the inflammation, and it plastered 
the hair down as a sort of dressing 
over the wound to keep out the 



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air, dirt, and microbes. There 
could be no better treatment* 

But the Indian was on his trail. 
Before lon^ the smell warned Wahb 
that a foe was coming, so he quiet- 
ly climbed farther up the moun- 
tain to another resting-place* But 
a^ain he sensed the Indian^s ap- 
proach, and made off. Several 
times this happened, and at length 
there was a second shot and an- 
other ^allin^ wound. Wahb was 
furious now. There was nothin^^ 
that really frightened him but that 
horrible odor of man, iron, and guns, 
that he remembered from the day 
when he lost his Mother; but now 
all fear of these left him. He 
heaved painfully up the mountain 
again, and along under a six-foot 




Icd^e, then up and back to the top 
of the bank, where he lay flat* On 
came the Indian, armed with knife 
and ^un; deftly, swiftly keeping on 
the trail ; ^loatin^ joyfully over each 
bloody print that meant such an- 
guish to the hunted Bean Straight 
up the slide of broken rock he 
came, where Wahb, ferocious with 
pain, was waiting on the led^e* On 
sneaked the do^^ed hunter; his 
eye still scanned the bloody slots 
or swept the woods ahead, but 
never was raised to glance above 
the led^e* And Wahb, as he saw 
this shape of Death relentless on 
his track, and smelled the hated 
smell, poised his bulk at heavy 
cost upon his quivering, mangled 
arm, there held until the proper 




HE STRUCK ONE FEARFUL, CRUSHING BLOW. 



instant came^ then to his sound 
arm^s matchless native force he 
added all the weight of desperate 
hate as down he struck one fearful, 
crushing blow. The Indian sank 
without a cry^ and then dropped 
out of sight. Wahb rose, and 
sought again a quiet nook where 
he might nurse his wounds. Thus 
he learned that one must fight for 
peace; for he never saw that In- 
dian again, and he had time to rest 
and recover. 





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II 

H E years went on as 
before, except that 
each winter Wahb 
slept less soundly, 
and each spring he 
came out earlier and was a bi^^er 
Grizzly, with fewer enemies that 
dared to face him. When his sixth 
year came he was a very bi^, strong, 
sullen Bear, with neither friend- 
ship nor love in his life since that 
evil day on the Lower Piney. 
No one ever heard of Wahb^s 




i/i^^ 



mate* No one believes that he ever 
had one* The love-season of Bears 
came and went year after year, but 
left him alone in his prime as he 
had been in his youth* It is not 
^ood for a Bear to be alone ; it is 
bad for him in every way* His ha- 
bitual moroseness ^rew with his 
stren^thy and any one chancing to 
meet him now would have called 
him a dangerous Grizzly* 

He had lived in the Meteetsee 
Valley since first he betook him- 
self there, and his character had 
been shaped by many little adven- 
tures with traps and his wild rivals 
of the mountains* But there was 
none of the latter that henow feared^ 
and he knew enough to avoid the 
first, for that penetrating odor of 




man and iron was a never-failing 
warnin^^ especially after an experi- 
ence which befell him in his sixth 
year. 

His ever-reliable nose told him 
that there was a dead Elk down 
amon^ the timber. 

He went up the wind^ and there^ 
sure enough ^ was the great de- 
licious carcass, already torn open 
at the very best place. True, there 
was that terrible man-and-iron 
taint, but it was so slight and the 
feast so tempting that after circling 
around and inspecting the carcass 
from his eight feet of stature, as he 
stood erect, he went cautiously for- 
ward, and at once was caught by 
his left paw in an enormous Bear- 
trap. He roared with pain and 



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vn 



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.sr^^' 




slashed about in a fury. But this 
was no Beaver-trap; it was a bi^ 
forty-pound Bear-catcher, and he 
was surely caught* 

Wahb fairly foamed with ra^e, 
and madly ^rit his teeth upon the 
trap. Then he remembered his 
former experiences. He placed the 
trap between his hind le^s, with a 
hind paw on each spring, and 
pressed down with all bis weight. 
But it was not enough . H e dra^^ed 
off the trap and its clog, and went 
clanking up the mountain. Again 
and again he tried to free his foot, 
but in vain, till he came where a 
great trunk crossed the trail a few 
feet from the ground. By chance, 
or happy thought, he reared again 
under this and made a new attempt. 



zy 




With a hind foot on each spring 
and his mighty shoulders under- 
neath the tree, he bore down 
with his titanic strength : the ^reat 
steel springs gave way, the jaws 
relaxed, and he tore out his foot* 
So Wahb was free again, though 
he left behind a great toe which 
had been nearly severed by the 
first snap of the steeL 

Again Wahb had a painful wound 
to nurse, and as he was a left- 
handed Bear, — that is, when he 
wished to turn a rock over he stood 
on the right paw and turned with 
the left, — one result of this dis- 
ablement was to rob him for a time 
of all those dainty foods that are 
found under rocks or logs. The 
wound healed at last, but he never 



A 
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sfy forgot that experience, and thence- 

forth the pungent smell of man and 
iron, even without the ^un smelly 
never failed to enrage him* 

Many experiences had taught 
him that it is better to run if he 
only smelled the hunter or heard 
him far away, but to fi^ht despe- 
rately if the man was close at hand. 
And the cow-boys soon came to 
know that the Upper Meteetsee 
was the ran^e of a Bear that was 
better let alone. 




Ill 

JNE day after a long 
absence Wahb came 
into the lower part 
of his range, and saw 
to his surprise one 
of the wooden dens that men make 
forthemselves* As he came around 
to get the wind, he sensed the taint 
that never failed to infuriate him 
now, and a moment later he heard 
a loud bang and felt a stinging shock 
in his left hind leg, the old stiff leg. 
He wheeled about, in time to see a 
man running toward the new-made 



shanty* Had the shot been in his 
shoulder Wahb would have been 
helpless, but it was not* 

Mighty arms that could toss pine 
lo^s like broomsticks, paws that 
with one tap could crush the bi^^est 
Bull upon the ran^e, claws that 
could tear hu^e slabs of rock from 
the mountain-side — what was even 
the deadly rifle to them ! 

When the man^s partner came 
home that ni^ht he found him on 
the reddened shanty floon The 
bloody trail from outside and a 
shaky, scribbled note on the back 
of a paper novel told the tale* 

It was Wahb done it, I seen him by the 
spring and wounded him. I tried to git on 
the shanty, but he ketched me. My God, 
how I suffer I JACK. 





It was all fain The man had 
invaded the Beards country^ had 
tried to take the Beards life^ and 
had lost his own. But Jack^s part- 
ner swore he would kill that Bean 

He took up the trail and followed 
it up the cafion^ and there bush- 
whacked and hunted day after day. 
He put out baits and traps, and at 
length one day he heard a crash^ 
clatter^ thump^ and a hu^e rock 
bounded down a bank into a wood, 
scaring out a couple of deer that 
floated away like thistle-down. 
Miller thought at first that it was a 
land-slide; but he soon knew that 
it was Wahb that had rolled the 
boulder over merely for the sake 
of two or three ants beneath it. 

The wind had not betrayed him, 



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vfy SO on peering through the bush 

Miller saw the ^reat Bear as he 
fed, favoring his left hind le^ and 
^rowlin^ sullenly to himself at a 
fresh twinge of pain* Miller stea- 
died himself, and thought, ^^Here 
^oes a finisher or a dead miss/^ 
He ^ave a sharp whistle, the Bear 
stopped every move, and, as he 
stood with ears acock, the man 
fired at his head. 

But at that moment the ^reat 
sha^^y head moved, only an infuri- 
ating scratch was ^iven, the smoke 
betrayed the man^s place, and the 
Grizzly made savage, three-le^^ed 
haste to catch his foe. 

Miller dropped his ^un and 
swun^ ll^l^tly into a tree, the only 
lar^e one near. Wahb ra^ed in 



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vain against the trunk. He tore \!!/ 

off the bark with his teeth and 

claws; but Miller was safe beyond 

his reach. For fully four hours the 

Grizzly watched, then ^ave it up, 

and slowly went off into the bushes 

till lost to view. Miller watched 

him from the tree, and afterward 

waited nearly an hour to be sure 

that the Bear was gone. He then 

slipped to the ground, got his gun, 

and set out for camp. But Wahb 

was cunning; he had only seemed 

to ^o away, and then had sneaked 

back quietly to watch. As soon as 

the man was away from the tree, 

too far to return, Wahb dashed 

after him. In spite of his wounds 

the Bear could move the fasten 

Within a quarter of a mile — well^ 



At 

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\^ Wahb did just what the man had 

sworn to do to him^ 

Lcn^ afterward his friends found 
the gun and enough to tell the tale^ 

The claim-shanty on the Me- 
teetsee fell to pieces. It never 
again was used, for no man cared 
to enter a country that had but few 
allurements to offset its evident 
curse of ill luck, and where such a 
terrible Grizzly was always on the 
war-path. 




IV 



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\3 




HEN they found 
good gold on the 
Upper Meteetsee. 
Miners came in 
pairs and wandered 
through the peaks, rooting up 
the ground and spoiling the little 
streams — grizzly old men mostly, 
that had lived their lives in the 
mountain and were themselves 
slowly turning into Grizzly Bears; 
digging and grubbing everywhere, 
not for good, wholesome roots, but 





" ' ain't he an awful size, though ? ' 



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for that shiny yellow sand that they 
rould not eat; living the lives of 
Grizzlies, asking nothing but to be 
let alone to dig* 

They seemed to understand 
Grizzly Wahb* The first time they 
met, Wahb reared up on his hind 
legs, and the wicked green light- 
nings began to twinkle in his small 
eyes* The elder man said to his 
mate: 

^* Let him alone, and he wonH 
bother you/' 

*^ Ain'the an awful size, though ?'* 
replied the other, nervously* 

Wahb was about to charge, but 
somethingheld him back — a some- 
thing that had no reference to his 
senses, that was felt only when 
they were still; a something that 




in Bear and Man is wiser than his 
wisdom^ and that points the way 
at every doubtful fork in the dim 
and winding traiL 

Of course Wahb did not under- 
stand what the men said, but he 
did feel that there was something 
different here* The smell of man 
and iron was there, but not of that 
maddening kind, and he missed 
the pungent odor that even yet 
brought back the dark days of his 
cubhood* 

The men did not move, so Wahb 
rumbled a subterranean growl, 
dropped down on his four feet, and 
went on. 

Late the same year Wahb ran 
across the red-nosed Blackbean 
How that Bear did keep on shrink- 



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in^ ! Wahb could have burled him 
across the GraybuU with one tap 
now. 

But the Blackbear did not mean 
to let him try. He hustled his fat^ 
podgy body up a tree at a rate that 
made him puff. Wahb reached up 
nine feet from the ground^ and with 
one rake of his huge claws tore 
off the bark clear to the shining 
white wood and down nearly to 
the ground; and the Blackbear 
shivered and whimpered with ter- 
ror as the scraping of those awful 
claws ran up the trunk and up his 
spine in a way that was horribly 
suggestive. 

What was it that the sight of 
that Blackbear stirred in Wahb? 
Was it memories of the Upper 



'A-h^^ 





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Piney, lon^ forgotten; thoughts of kV 

a woodland rich in food? 

Wahb left him trembling up there 
as hi^h as he could ^et^ and with- 
out any very clear purpose swun^ 
alon^ the upper benches of the 
Meteetsee down to the Graybull, 
around the foot of the Rimrock 
Mountain; on, till hours later he 
found himself in the timber-tangle 
of the Lower Piney, and amon^ 
the berries and ants of the old 
times* 

He had forgotten what a fine 
land the Piney was : plenty of food, 
no miners to spoil the streams, no 
hunters to keep an eye on, and no 
mosquitos or flies, but plenty of ' 
open, sunny glades and sheltering 
^Ife^ woods, backed up by high, straight 

^ cliffs to turn the colder winds* 




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V^ There were, moreover, no resi- 

dent Grizzlies, no si^ns even of 
passing travelers, and the Black- 
bears that were in possession did 
not count. 

Wahb was well pleased. He 
rolled his vast bulk in an old Buf- 
falo-wallow, and rearing up against 
a tree where the Piney Canon quits 
the Graybull Canon, he left on it 
his mark fully ei^ht feet from the 
ground. 

In the days that followed he 
wandered farther and farther up 
amon^ the ru^^ed spurs of the 
Shoshones, and took possession 
as he wento He found the sign- 
boards of several Blackbears, and 
if they were small dead trees he 
sent them crashing to earth with a 
drive of his ^iant paw. If they 




^f 



were ^reen, he put his own mark 
over the other mark, and made it 
clearer by slashing the bark with 
the ^reat pickaxes that ^rew on 
his toes* 

The Upper Piney had so lon^ 
been a Blackbear ran^e that the 
Squirrels had ceased storing their 
harvest in hollow trees, and were 
now usin^ the spaces under flat 
rocks, where the Blackbears could 
not ^et at them; so Wahb found 
this a land of plenty: every fourth 
or fifth rock in the pine woods was 
the roof of a Squirrel or Chip- 
munk granary, and when he turned 
it over, if the little owner were 
there, Wahb did not scruple to 
flatten him with his paw and de- 
vour him as an agreeable relish to 
his own provisions* 



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And wherever Wahb went he 
put up his si^n-board: 

Trespassers beware ! 

It was written on the trees as 
hi^h up as he could reach, and 
every one that came by understood 
that the scent of it and the hair in 
it were those of the ^reat Grizzly 
Wahb^ 

If his Mother had lived to train 
him, Wahb would have known that 
a ^ood ran^e in spring may be a 
bad one in summen Wahb found 
out by years of experience that a 
total change with the seasons is 
best* In the early spring the Cat- 
tle and Elk ranges, with their win- 
ter-killed carcasses, offer a boun- 
tiful feast* In early summer the 
best forage is on the warm hill- 







v/ 

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sides where the quamash and the V^ 

Indian turnip ^row* In late sum- 
mer the berry-bushes alon^ the 
river-flat are laden with fruit, and 
in autumn the pine woods ^ave 
good chances to fatten for the win- 
ten So he added to his ran^e each 
yean He not only cleared out the 
Blackbears from the Piney and the 
Meteetsee, but he went over the 
Divide and killed that old fellow 
that had once chased him out of 
the Warhouse Valley* And, more 
than that, he held what he had 
won, for he broke up a camp of 
tenderfeet that were looking for a 
ranch location on the Middle Me- 
teetsee; he stampeded their horses, 
and made general smash of the 
camp* And so all the animals, in- 



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eluding man, came to know that 
the whole ran^^e from Frank^s Peak 
to the Shoshone spurs was the pro- 
per domain of a kin^ well able to 
defend it, and the name of that kin^ 
was Meteetsee Wahb> 

Any creature whose strength 
puts him beyond danger of open 
attack is apt to lose in cunning. 
Yet Wahb never forgot his early 
experience with the traps. He 
made it a rule never to ^o near that 
smell of man and iron, and that 
was the reason that he never a^ain 
was caught. 

So he led his lonely life and 
slouched around on the mountains, 
throwing boulders about like peb- 
bles, and hu^e trunks like match- 
wood, as he sought for his daily 



/ 




y 



food* And every beast of hill and 
plain soon came to know and fly in 
fear of Wahb, the one time hunted, 
persecuted Cub* And more than 
one Blackbear paid with his life for 
the ill-deed of that other, lon^ a^o. 
And many a cranky Bobcat flying 
before him took to a tree, and if 
that tree were dead and dry, Wahb 
heaved it down, and tree and Cat 
alike were dashed to bits. Even 
the proud-necked Stallion, leader 
of the mustang band, thought well 
for once to yield the road. The 
^reat, ^rey Timberwolves, and the 
Mountain Lions too, left their new 
kill and sneaked in sullen fear aside 
when Wahb appeared. And if, as 
he hulked across the sa^e-covered 
river-flat sending the scared An- 



) 



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Vj^/ telope skimming like birds before 

him, he was faced perchance, by 
some burly Ran^e-bull, too youn^ 
to be wise and too bi^ to be afraid^ 
Wahb smashed his skull with one 
blow of that ^iant paw, and served 
him as the Ran^e-cow would have 
served himself lon^ years a^o. 

The All-mother never fails to 
offer to her own, twin cups, one 
^all, and one of balm^ Little or 
much they may drink, but equally 
of each* The mountain that is 
easy to descend must soon be 
climbed a^ain* The ^rindin^ hard- 
ship of Wahb^s early days, had 
built his mighty frame* All usual 
pleasures of a grizzly^s life had 
been denied him but power be- 
stowed in more than double share* 




So he lived on year after year, 
unsoftened by mate or compan- 
ion, sullen, fearing nothing, ready 
to fi^ht, but asking only to be let 
alone — quite alone* He had but 
one keen pleasure in his sombre 
life — thelastin^^loryinhis match- 
less strength — the small but never 
failing thrill of joy as the foe fell 
crushed and limp, or the riven 
boulders ^rit and heaved when he 
turned on them the measure of his 
wondrous force* 




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,105 . 




VERYTHING has 
a smell of its own 
for those that have 
I noses to smelL Wahb 
had been learning 
smells all his life, and knew the 
meaning of most of those in the 
mountains* It was as though each 
and every thin^ had a voice of its 
own for him; and yet it was far 
better than a voice, for every one 
knows that a ^ood nose is better 
than eyes and ears together. And 



each of these myriads of voices 
kept on cryin^^ ^* Here and such 
am V 

The juniper-berries, the rose- 
hips* the strawberries, each had a 
soft, sweet little voice, callin^^ 
*^Here -we are — Berries, Berries/' 

The great pine woods had a 
loud, far-reaching voice, ** Here 
are we, the Pine-trees,^' but when 
he got right up to them Wahb 
could hear the low, sweet call of 
the pifion-nuts, ** Here are we, the 
Pinon-nuts/' 

And the quamash beds in May 
sang a perfect chorus when the 
wind was right: ^^ Quamash beds, 
Quamash beds/' 

And when he got among them 
he made out each single voice. 



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Each root had its own little piece 
to say to his nose: ^^ Here am I, a 
bi^ Quamashy rich and ripe/^ or 
a tiny, sharp voice, ^^Here am I, 
a ^cod-for-nothin^, stringy little 

TOOtJ' 

And the broad, rich russulas in 
the autumn called aloud, ^^ I am a 
fat, wholesome Mushroom, ^^ and 
the deadly amanita cried, ^* I am an 
Amanita. Let me alone, or youUl 
be a sick Bear/^ And the fairy 
harebell of the canon-banks sang 
a song too, as fine as its thread- 
like stem, and as soft as its dainty 
blue; but the warden of the smells 
had learned to report it not, for 
this, and a million other such, were 
of no interest to Wahb. 

So every living thing that moved, 





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and every flower that ^rew, and V^ 

every rock and stone and shape 
on earth told out its tale and san^ 
its little story to his nose* Day or 
ni^ht, fo^ or bright that ^reat, 
moist nose told him most of the 
things he needed to know, or 
passed unnoticed those of no con- 
cern, and he depended on it more 
and more. If his eyes and ears to- 
gether reported so and so, he would 
not even then believe it until his 
nose saidy ^^ Yes; that is ri^ht/^ 

But this is something that man 
cannot understand, for he has sold 
the birthright of his nose for the 
privilege of living in towns. 

While hundreds of smells were >,_^^., 
agreeable to Wahb, thousands j^^^^ 
were indifferent to him, a ^ood v^. 




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\^ many were unpleasant^ and some 

actually put him in a ra^e* 

He had often noticed that if a 
C^est wind were blowing when he 
^as at the head of the Piney 
Canon there was an odd; new 
scent* Some days he did not mind 
it, and some days it disgusted 
him; but he never followed it up* 
On other days a north wind from 
the hi^h Divide brought a most 
awful smell, something unlike any 
other, a smell that he wanted only 
to ^et away from* 

Wahb was ^ettin^ well past his 
youth now, and he be^an to have 
pains in the hind le^ that had been 
wounded so often* After a cold 
ni^ht or a lon^ time of wet weather 








A^' 



^ 



be could scarcely use that le^^ and 
one day, while thus crippled, the 
west wind came down the cafion 
with an odd message to his nose. 
Wahb could not clearly read the 
message, but it seemed to say, 
* Come/ and something within him 
said, * Go/ The smell of food will 
draw a hungry creature and disgust 
a gorged one. We do not know 
why, and all that any one can learn 
is that the desire springs from a 
need of the body* So Wahb felt 
drawn by what had long disgusted 
him, and he slouched up the moun- 
tain path, grumbling to himself and 
slapping savagely back at branches 
that chanced to switch his face. 

The odd odor grew very strong; 
it led him where he had never been 



,110, 




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v^ before — up a bank of whitish sand 

to a bench of the same color, where 

there was unhealthy-looking water 

k running down, and a kind of fo^ 

P coming out of a hole. Wahb threw 

■ up his nose suspiciously — such a 

peculiar smell! He climbed the 

bench. 



I 



A snake wriggled across the .(\ 
sand in front. Wahb crushed it 
with a blow that made the near 
trees shiver and sent a balanced 
boulder toppling down, and he 
growled a growl that rumbled up 
the valley like distant thunden 
Then he came to the foggy hole. 
It was full of water that moved 
gently and steamed. Wahb put in 
his foot, and found it was quite 
warm and that it felt pleasantly on 






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his skin. He put in both feet^ and k^ 

little by little went in farther, caus- 
ing the pool to overflow on all 
sides, till he was lyin^ at full length 
in the warm, almost hot, sulphur- 
spring, and sweltering in the green- 
ish water, while the wind drifted 
the steam about overhead* 

There are plenty of these sul- 
phur-springs in the Rockies, but 
this chanced to be the only one on 
Wahb^s range. He lay in it for 
over an hour; then, feeling that he 
had had enough, he heaved his 
huge bulk up on the bank, and 
realized that he was feeling re- 
markably well and supple. The 
stiffness of his hind leg was gone. 

He shook the water from his 
shaggy coat. A broad ledge in full 



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sun-beat invited him to stretch 
himself out and dry. But first he 
reared against the nearest tree and 
left a mark that none could mis- 
take. True^ there were plenty of 
si^ns of other animals usin^ the 
sulphur-bath for their ills; but 
what of it? Thenceforth that tree 
bore this inscription, in a lan^ua^e 
of mud, hair, and smell, that every 
mountain creature could read : 

My bath. Keep away ! 

(Signed) WAHB. 

Wahb lay on his belly till his 
back was dry, then turned on his 
broad back and squirmed about in 
a ponderous way till the broiling 
sun had wholly dried him. He 







A 
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realized that he was really feeling v^ 

very well now* He did not say to 
himself, ^^ I am troubled with that 
unpleasant disease called rheuma- 
tism, and sulphur-bath treatment 
is the thin^ to cure it/' But what 
he did know was, ^^ I have dreadful 
pains; I feel better when I am in 
this stinking pool/' So thenceforth 
he came back whenever the pains 
be^an a^ain, and each time he was 
cured. 




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.>->.rAK 







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K'y 




■Ah 

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Part III 



THE WANING 










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*EARS went by, 
Wahb ^rew no bi^- 
^er, — there was no 
need for that, — but 
he ^ot whiter^ Gross- 
er, and more dangerous. H e really 
had an enormous range now. Each 
spring, after the winter storms 
had removed his notice-boards, he 
went around and renewed them. 
It was natural to do so, for, first of 
all, the scarcity of food compelled 
him to travel all over the range. 



./ 







5^3^*^^^ "^ 



There were lots of clay wallows at \^ 

that season^ and the itching of his 
skin, as the winter coat be^an to 
shed, made the dressing of cool, 
wet clay very pleasant, and the 
exquisite pain of a ^ood scratch- 
ing was one of the finest pleasures 
he knew* So, whatever his motive, 
the result was the same: the si^ns 
were renewed each spring* 

At length the Palette Ranch out- 
fit appeared on the Lower Piney, 
and the men ^ot acquainted with 
the ^udv old fellow/ The Cow- 
'j^r^::Jt^^ punchers, when they saw him, de- 

^ ^ ' cided they ^had n^t lost any Bears 

and they had better keep out of his 
way and let him mind his business/ 
They did not often see him, al- 
though his tracks and si^n-boards 



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were everywhere. But the owner 
of this outfit, a born hunter, took a 
keen interest in Wahb. He learned 
something of the old Beards his- 
tory from Colonel Pickett, and 
found out for himself more than 
the colonel ever knew. 

He learned that Wahb ranged 
as far south as the Upper Wiggins 
Fork and north to the Stinking 
Water, and from the Meteetsee to 
the Shoshones. 

He found that Wahb knew more 
about Bear-traps than most trap- 
pers do; that he either passed them 
by or tore open the other end of the 
bait-pen and dragged out the bait 
without ^oin^ near the trap, and 
by accident or design Wahb some- 
times sprang the trap with one of 



thelo^sthatformedthepen. This 
ranch-owner found also that Wahb 
disappeared from his ran^e each 
year during the heat of the summer, 
as completely as he did each win- 
ter during his sleep. 



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Vuy 




II 



^ANY years ago a 
wise government set 
aside the head wa- 
ters of the Yellow- 
stone to be a sanc- 
tuary of wild life foreven In the 
limits of this great Wonderland the 
ideal of the Royal Singer was to be 
realized, and none were to harm or 
make afraid* No violence was to 
be offered to any bird or beast, no 
ax was to be carried into its primi- 
tive forests, and the streams were 




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to flow on forever unpolluted by \^ 

mill or mine* All things were to 
bear witness that such as this was 
the West before the white man 
came. 

The wild animals quickly found 
out all this. They soon learned 
the boundaries of this unfenced 
Park, and, as every one knows, 
they show a different nature within 
its sacred limits. They no longer 
shun the face of man, they neither 
fear nor attack him^ and they are 
even more tolerant of one another 
in this land of refuse. 

Peace and plenty are the sum of 
earthly ^ood; so, finding them 
here, the wild creatures crowd 
into the Park from the surround- ,v^% 

in^ country in numbers not else- ^^ j 
where to be seen. S%t^^ 







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The Bears are especially nu- 
merous about the Fountain Ho- 
tel. In the woods, a quarter of a 
mile away, is a smooth open place 
where the steward of the hotel has 
all the broken and waste food put 
out daily for the Bears, and the man 
whose work it is has become the 
Steward of the Bears^ Banquet. 
Each day it is spread, and each 
year there are more Bears to par- 
take of it. It is a common thin^ 
now to see a dozen Bears feast- 
ing there at one time. They are 
of all kinds — -Black, Brown, Cin- 
namon, Grizzly, Silvertip, Roach- 
backs, bi^ and small, families and 
rangers, from all parts of the vast 
surrounding country. All seem to 
realize that in the Park no vio- 
lence is allowed, and the most fe- 








rocious of them have here put on 
a new behavior. Although scores 
of Bears roam aboutthis choice re- 
sort^ and sometimes quarrel amon^ 
themselves, not one of them has 
ever yet harmed a man. 

Year after year they have come 
and ^one. The passing travellers 
see them. The men of the hotel 
know many of them well. They 
know that they show up each sum- 
mer during the short season when 
the hotel is in use, and that they 
disappear a^ain, no man knowing 
whence they come or whither they 

Onedaythe owner of the Palette 
Ranch came through the Park. 
During his stay at the Fountain 
Hotel, he went to the Bear ban- 



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quet-hall at high meal-tide. There 
were several Blackbears feasting^ 
but they made way for a huge 
Silvertip Grizzly that came about 
sundown* 

^^That/^ said the man who was 
acting as guide, ^Ms the biggest 
Grizzly in the Park; but he is a 
peaceable sort, or Lud knows 
what ^d happen/' 

^^That!'' said the ranchman, in 
astonishment, as the Grizzly came 
hulking nearer, and loomed up like 
a load of hay among the piney 
pillars of the Banquet HalL ^^ That ! 
If that is not Meteetsee Wahb, I 
never saw a Bear in my life ! Why, 
that is the worst Grizzly that ever 
rolled a log in the Big Horn 
Basin/' 





m 



^Mt ain't possible/' said the 
other^ ^^for he 's here every sum- 
mer, July and August, an' I reckon 
he don't live so far away." 

^^Well, that settles it/' said the 
ranchman; ^^July and August is 
just the time we miss him on the 
ran^e ; and you can see for yourself 
that he is a little lame behind and 
has lost a claw of his left front foot* 
Now I know where he puts in 
his summers; but I did not sup- 
pose that the old reprobate would 
know enough to behave himself 
away from home/' 

The big Grizzly became very 
well known during the successive 
hotel seasons. Once only did he 
really behave ill, and that was the 
first season he appeared, before 



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be fully knew the ways of the 
Park. 

He wandered over to the hotel, 
one day, and in at the front door. 
In the hall he reared up his ei^ht 
feet of stature as the Quests fled in 
terror ; then he went into the clerk^s 
office. The man said : ^^ All ri^ht ; 
if you need this office more than I 
do, you can have it,^^ and leaping 
over the counter, locked himself in 
the telegraph-office, to wire the 
superintendent of the Park: ^^Old 
Grizzly in the office now, seems 
to want to run hotel; may we 
shoot? '^ 

The reply came: ^^No shooting 
allowed in Park; use the hose/' 
Which they did, and, wholly taken 
by surprise, the Bear leaped over 




W 



the counter too, and ambled out 
the back way, with a heavy thud- 
thudding of his feet, and a rattling 
of his claws on the floon He 
passed through the kitchen as he 
went, and, picking up a quarter of 
beef, took it alon^* 

This was the only time he was 
known to do ill, though on one oc- 
casion he was led into a breach 
of the peace by another Bean 
This was a lar^e she-Blackbear 
and a noted mischief-maken She 
had a wretched, sickly cub that 
she was very proud of — so proud 
that she went out of her way to 
seek trouble on his behalL And 
he, like all spoiled children, was 
the cause of much bad feeling* 
She was so bi^ and fierce that she 



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VJ32^ 



could bully all the other Black- 
bears, but when she tried to drive 
off old Wahb she received a pat 
from his paw that sent her tumbling 
like a football. He followed her 
up, and would have killed her, for 
she had broken the peace of the 
Park, but she escaped by climbing 
a tree, from the top of which her 
miserable little cub was apprehen- 
sively squealing at the pitch of his 
voice* So the affair was ended; in 
future the Blackbear kept out of 
Wahb^s way, and he won the repu- 
tation of bein^ a peaceable, well- 
behaved Bean Most persons be- 
lieved that he came from some 
remote mountains where were 
neither ^uns nor traps to make 
him sullen and reven^efuL 










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Ill 

5VERY one knows 
that a Bitter-root 
Grizzly is a bad 
Bear» The Bitter- 
root Ran^e is the 
roughest part of the mountains* 
The ground is everywhere cut up 
with deep ravines and overgrown 
with dense and tangled under- 
brush. 

It is an impossible country for 
horses, and difficult for gunners, 
and there is any amount of ^ood 



V/ 

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Bear-pasture. So there are plenty 
of Bears and plenty of trappers. 

The Roachbacks, as the Bitter- 
root Grizzlies are called, are a 
cunning and desperate race. An 
old Roachback knows more about 
traps than half a dozen ordinary 
trappers; he knows more about 
plants and roots than a whole col- 
lege of botanists. He can tell to a 
certainty just when and where to 
find each kind of grub and worm, 
and he knows by a whiff whether 
the hunter on his trail a mile away 
is working with guns, poison, dogs, 
traps, or all of them together. And 
he has one general rule, which is 
an endless puzzle to the hunter: 
^Whatever you decide to do, do it 
quickly and follow it right up.^ So 



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when a trapper and a Roachback 
meet, the Bear at once makes up 
his mind to run away as hard as he 
can, or to rush at the man and 
fi^ht to a finish. 

The Grizzlies of the Bad Lands 
did not do this: they used to stand 
on their dignity and growl like a 
thunder-storm, and so gave the 
hunters a chance to play their 
deadly lightning; and lightning is 
worse than thunder any day. Men 
can get used to growls that rumble 
along the ground and up one^s legs 
to the little house where one^s 
courage lives; but Bears cannot 
get used to 45-90 soft-nos^ed bul- 
lets, and that is why the Grizzlies 
of the Bad Lands were all killed 
off. 



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So the hunters have learned 
that they never know what a 
Roachback will do; but they do 
know that he is ^oin^ to be quick 
about ito 

Altogether these Bitter-root 
Grizzlies have solved very well 
the problem of life, in spite of 
white men, and are therefore in- 
creasing in their own wild moun- 
tains* 

Of course a ran^e will hold only 
so many Bears, and the increase 
is crowded out; so that when that 
slim youn^ Bald-faced Roachback 
found he could not hold the range 
he wanted, he went out perforce to 
seek his fortune in the world* 

He was not a big Bear, or he 
would not have been crowded out; 



i)M=*=^'-j 




\ 



but he had been trained in a ^ood vi 

school^ so that he was cunning 
enough to ^et on very well else- 
where. How he wandered down 
to the Salmon River Mountains 
and did not like them; how he 
traveled till he ^ot amon^ the barb- 
wire fences of the Snake Plains 
and of course could not stay there ; 
how a mere chance turned him 
from ^oin^ eastward to the Parky 
where he might have rested; how 
he made for the Snake River 
Mountains and found more hunters 
than berries; how he crossed into 
the Tetons and looked down with 
disgust on the teeming man colony 
of Jackson^s Hole, does not belong 
to this history of Wahb. But when 
Baldy Roachback crossed the Gros 



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Vlfy Ventre Ran^e and over the Wind 

River Divide to the head of the 
Graybull^ he does come into the 
story^ just as he did into the coun- 
try and the life of the Meteetsee 
Grizzly- 

The Roachback had not found 
a man-si^n since he left Jackson^s 
Hole^ and here he was in a land of 
plenty of food* He feasted on all 
the delicacies of the season^ and 
enjoyed the easy^ brushless coun- 
try till he came on one of Wahb^s 
si^n-posts* 

^^Trespassers beware !^^ it said 
in the plainest mannen The 
Roachback reared up against it* 

^^ Thunder! what a Bear! ^^ The 
nose-mark was a head and neck 
above Baldy^s highest reach* Now, 




a simple Bear would have ^one 
quietly away after this discovery; 
but Baldy felt that the mountains 
owed him a living, and here was a 
^ood one if he could keep out of 
the way of the bi^ fellow^ He 
nosed about the place, kept a sharp 
lookout for the present owner, and 
went on feeding wherever he ran 
across a ^ood thin^. 

A step or two from this ominous 
tree was an old pine stump* In the 
Bitter-roots there are often mice- 
nests under such stumps, and 
Baldy jerked it over to see* There 
was nothing* The stump rolled 
over against the si^n-post* Baldy 
had not yet made up his mind 
about it; but a new notion came 
into his cunning brain* He turned 



•^^^'<::>. - 




HE DELIBERATELY STOOD UP ON THE PINE ROOT. 



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his bead on this side, then on that. 
He looked at the stump, then at 
the si^n, with his little pi^-like 
eyes- Then he deliberately stood 
up on the pine root, with his back 
to the tree, and put his mark away 
up, a head at least above that of 
Wahb. He rubbed bis back lon^ 
and hard, and he sought some 
mud to smear his head and shoul- 
ders, then came back and made the 
mark so bi^, so strong, and so 
hi^h, and emphasized it with such 
claw-bashes in the bark, that it 
could be read only in one way — 
a challenge to the present claimant 
from some monstrous invader, who 
was ready, nay anxious, to fight to 
a finish for this desirable range. 
Maybe it was accident and may- 



be design, but when the Roach- 
back jumped from the root it rolled 
to one side. Baldy went on down 
the caiion, keeping the keenest 
lookout for his enemy. 

It was not lon^ before Wahb 
found the trail of the interloper^ 
and all the ferocity of his outside- 
the-Park nature was aroused. 

He followed the trail for miles 
on more than one occasion. But 
the small Bear was quick-footed as 
well as quick-witted, and never 
showed himself. He made a pointy 
however, of calling at each sign- 
post, and if there was any means 
of cheating, so that his mark mi^ht 
be put higher, he did it with a vim^ 
and left a bi^, showy record. But 
if there was no chance for any but 



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a fair register, he would not go 
near the tree, but looked for a fresh 
tree near by with some log or side- 
ledge to reach from. 

Thus Wahb soon found the in- 
terloper's marks towering far above 
bis own — a monstrous Bear evi- 
dently, that even he could not be 
sure of mastering. But Wahb was 
no coward. He was ready to fight 
to a finish any one that might 
come ; and he hunted the range for 
that invader. Day after day Wahb 
sought for him and held himself 
ready to fight. He found his trail 
daily, and more and more often he 
found that towering record far 
above his own. He often smelled 
him on the wind ; but he never saw 
him, for the old Gri2:zly's eyes had 




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^rown very dim of late years; Vlf/ 

things but a little way off were 
k mere blurs to him^ The continual 
I menace could not but fill Wahb 
with uneasiness, for he was not 
youn^ now, and his teeth and claws 
were worn and blunted* He was 
more than ever troubled with pains 
\ in his old wounds, and though he 
could have risen on the spur of the 
moment to fi^ht any number of 
Grizzlies of any size, still the con- 
tinual apprehension, the knowledge 
that he must hold himself ready at 
any moment to fi^ht this youn^ 
monster, weighed on his spirits and 
be^an to tell on his general health. 



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IV 

HE Roachback^s life 
was one of contin- 
ual vi^ilance^ always 
ready to run, doub- 
ling and shifting to 
avoid the encounter that must mean 
instant death to him. Many a time 
from some hiding-place he watched 
the ^reat Bear, and trembled lest 
the wind should betray him. Sev- 
eral times his very impudence 
saved him, and more than once he 
was nearly cornered in a box- 



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canon* Once he escaped only by \^ 

climbing up a lon^ crack in a cliff, 
which Wahb^s hu^e frame could 
not have entered. But still, in a 
mad persistence, he kept on mark- 
ing the trees farther into the range* 
At last he scented and followed 
up the sulphur-bath. He did not 
understand it at alL It had no ap- 
peal to him, but hereabouts were 
the tracks of the owner* In a 
spirit of mischief the Roachback 
scratched dirt into the spring, and 
then seeing the rubbing-tree, he 
stood sidewise on the rocky led^e, 

^ and was thus able to put his mark 

fully five feet above that of Wahb* 
Then he nervously jumped down, 

^^ and was running about, defiling the 

bath and keeping a sharp lookout, 




"THE ROACHBACK FLED INTO THE WOODS.' 



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when he heard a noise in the 
woods below* Instantly he was all 
alert. The sound drew near, then 
the wind brought the sure proof, 
and the Roachback, in terror, 
turned and fled into the woods. 

It was Wahb. He had been 
failing in health of late; his old 
pains were on him a^ain, and, as 
well as his hind le^, had seized his 
ri^ht shoulder, where were still 
lodged two rifle-balls. He was 
feeling very ill, and crippled with 
pain. He came up the familiar 
bank at a jerky limp, and there 
caught the odor of the foe; then 
he saw the track in the mud — his 
eyes said the track of a small Bear, 
but his eyes were dim now, and 
his nose, his unerrin^^ nose, said, 





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^^This is the track of the huge in- V3' 

vader/' Then he noticed the tree 
with his sign on it, and there be- 
yond doubt was the stranger^smark 
far above his own* His eyes and 
nose were agreed on this; and 
more, they told him that the foe 
was close at hand, might at any 
moment come* 

Wahb was feeling ill and weak 
with pain* He was in no mood for 
a desperate fight* A battle against 
such odds would be madness now. 
So, without taking the treatment, 
he turned and swung along the 
bench away from the direction 
taken by the stranger — the first 
time since his cubhood that he 
had declined to fight* 

That was a turning-point in 



Wahb^s life. If he had followed 
up the stranger he would have 
found the miserable little craven 
tremblin^^ cowering, in an a^ony 
of terror^ behind a lo^ in a natural 
trap^ a walled-in glade only fifty 
yards away, and would surely have 
crushed him* Had he even taken 
the bath, his strength and courage 
would have been renewed, and if 
not, then at least in time he would 
have met his foe, and his after life 
would have been different. But he 
had turned. This was the fork in 
the trail, but he had no means of 
knowing it. 

He limped along, skirting the 
lower spurs of the Shoshones, and 
soon came on that horrid smell 



that he had known for 



years. 



but 






4'^ 






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m 



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rr.-*:^^; 



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never followed up or understood* \^ 

It was ri^ht in his road^ and he 
traced it to a small, barren ravine 
that was strewn over with skele- 
tons and dark objects, and Wahb, 
as he passed, smelled a smell of 
many different animals, and knew 
by its quality that they were lyin^ 
dead in this treeless, grassless hol- 
low* For there was a cleft in the 
rocks at the upper end, whence 
poured a deadly ^as ; invisible but 
heavy, it filled the little gulch like 
a brimming poison bowl, and at the 
lower end there was a steady over- 
flow* But Wahb knew only that 
the air that poured from it as he 
passed made him dizzy and sleepy, 
and repelled him, so that he got 
quickly away from it and was glad 
once more to breathe the piny wind^ 



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vly Once Wahb decided to retreat, 

it was all too easy to do so next 
time ; and the result worked double 
disastero For, since the bi^ stranger 
was allowed possession of the sul- 
phur-spring, Wahb felt that he 
would rather not go there* Some- 
times when he came across the 
traces of his foe, a spurt of his old 
courage would come back* He 
would rumble that thunder-growl 
as of old, and ^o painfully lumber- 
ing along the trail to settle the thing 
right then and there* But he never 
overtook the mysterious giant, and 
his rheumatism, growing worse 
now that he was barred from the 
cure, soon made him daily less 
capable of either running or fight- 
ing* 

Sometimes Wahb would sense 



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his foe^s approach when he was Vfy 

in a bad place for fi^htin^^ and, 
without really running, he would 
yield to a wish to be on a better 
footing, where he would have a 
fair chance. This better footing 
never led him nearer the enemy, 
for it is well known that the one 
awaiting has the advantage. 

Some days Wahb felt so ill that 
itwouldhave been madness to have 
staked everything on a fi^ht, and 
when he felt well or a little better, 
the stranger seemed to keep away* 

Wahb soon found that the stran- 
ger^s track was most often on the 
Warhouse and the west slope of 
the Piney, the very best feeding- 
grounds. To avoid these when he 
did not feel equal to fighting was 




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only natural, and as he was always 
in more or less pain now, it amount- 
ed to abandoning to the stranger 
the best part of the ran^e* 

Weeks went by* Wahb had 
meant to ^o back to his bath, but 
he never did* His pains ^rew 
worse; he was now crippled in his 
ri^ht shoulder as well as in his 
hind le^* ^ 

The lon^ strain of waiting for 
the fi^ht be^ot anxiety, that ^rew 
to be apprehension, which, with 
the sapping of his strength, was 
breaking down his courage, as it 
always must when courage is 
founded on muscular force* His 
daily care now was not to meet and 
fight the invader, but to avoid him 
till he felt betten 



if 









^^K^ 



^0 



d 



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Thus that first little retreat ^rev^ k!!/ 

into one lon^ retreat* Wahb had 
to go farther and farther down the 
Piney to avoid an encounter* He 
was daily worse fed, and as the 
weeks went by was daily less able 
to crush a foe* 

He was living and hiding at last 
on the Lower Piney — the very 
place where once his Mother had 
brought him with his little brothers* 
The life he led now was much like 
the one he had led after that dark 
day* Perhaps for the same reason* 
If he had had a family of his own 
all mi^ht have been different* As 
he limped alon^ one morning, seek- 
ing amon^ the barren aspen proves 
for a few roots, or the wormy 
partridge-berries that were too poor 



to interest the Squirrel and the 
Grouse^ he heard a stone rattle 
down the western slope into the 
woods, and, a little later, on the 
wind was borne the dreaded taints 
He waded through the ice-cold 
Piney, — oncehe would have leaped 
it, — andthe chill water sent through 
and up each ^reat hairy limb keen 
pains that seemed to reach his very 
life* He was retreating a^ain — 
which way? There seemed but 
one way now — toward the new 
ranch-house* 

But there were si^ns of stir 
about it lon^ before he was near 
enough to be seen* His nose, his 
trustiest friend, said, ^^Turn, turn 
and seek the hills,^' and turn he did 
even at the risk of meeting there 











the dreadful foe. He limped pain- 
fully alon^ the north bank of the 
Piney, keeping in the hollows and 
amon^ the trees* He tried to climb 
a cliff that of old he had often 
bounded up at full speed. When 
half-way up his footing ^ave way, 
and down he rolled to the bottom. 
A lon^ way round was now the only 
road, for onward he must ^o — on 
— on. But where ? There seemed 
no choice now but to abandon the 
whole ran^e to the terrible stranger. 
And feeling, as far as a Bear can 
feel, that he is fallen, defeated, de- 
throned at last, that he is driven 
from his ancient ran^e by a Bear 
too strong for him to face, he turned 
up the west fork, and the lot was 
drawn. The strength and speed 



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a^a 



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M!y 



were ^one from his once mighty 
limbs; he took three times as lon^ 
as he once would to mount each 
well-known rid^e, and as he went 
he glanced backward from time to 
time to know if he were pursued. 
Away up the head of the little 
branch were the Shoshones, bleak, 
forbidding; no enemies were there, 
and the Park was beyond it all — 
on, on he must ^o. But as he 
climbed with shaky limbs, and 
short uncertain steps, the west wind 
brought the odor of Death Gulch, 
that fearful little valley where every- 
thing was dead, where the very air 
was deadly* It used to disgust him 
and drive him away, but now Wahb 
felt that it had a message for him ; 
he was drawn by it* It was in his 





line of flight, and he hobbled slowly 
toward the place^ He went nearer, 
nearer, until he stood upon the 
entering led^e* A Vulture that had 
descended to feed on one of the 
victims was slowly going to sleep 
on the untouched carcass* Wahb 
swung his great grizzled muzzle 
and his long white beard in the 
wind* The odor that he once had 
hated was attractive now* There 
was a strange biting quality in the 
air* His body craved it* For it 
seemed to numb his pain and it 
promised sleep, as it did that day 
when first he saw the place* 

Far below him, to the right and 
to the left and on and on as far as 
the eye could reach, was the great 
kingdom that once had been his; 



1^ 

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VJ^ where he had lived for years in the 

^lory of his strength; where none 
had dared to meet him face to face* 
The whole earth could show no 
view more beautifuL But Wahb 
had no thought of its beauty; he 
only knew that it was a ^ood land 
to live in ; that it had been his, but 
that now it was ^one, for his 
strength was ^one, and he was fly- 
ing to seek a place where he could 
rest and be at peace* 

Away over the Shoshones, in- 
deed, was the road to the Park, 
but it was far, far away, with a 
doubtful end to the lon^, doubtful 
journey* But why so far? Here in 
this little ^ulch was all he sought; 
here were peace and painless sleep* 
He knew it; for bis nose, his 



V/ 
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never-erring nose, said, ^^ Here I \^ 

here nowl^^ 

He paused a moment at the ^ate^ 
and as he stood the wind-borne 
fumes be^an their subtle work. 
Five were the faithful wardens of 
his life, and the best and trustiest 
of them all flun^ open wide the 
door he lon^ had kept. A moment 
still Wahb stood in doubt. His 
lifelong ^uide was silent now, had 
^iven up his post. But another 
sense he felt within. The An^el of 
the Wild Things was standing 
there, beckoning, in the little vale. 
Wahb did not understand. He had 
no eyes to see the tear in the 
An^ePs eyes, nor the pitying smile 
that was surely on his lips. He 
could not even see the Angel. But 
he felt him beckoning, beckoning. 




HE PAUSED A MOMENT AT THE GATE." 



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A rush of his ancient courage 
surged in the Grizzly^s ru^^ed 
breast* He turned aside into the 
little ^^ulch* The deadly vapors 
entered in^ filled his hu^e chest 
and tingled in his vast^ heroic 
limbs as he calmly lay down on the 
rocky, herbless floor and as gently 
went to sleep, as he did that day in 
his Mother^s arms by the Graybull, 
lon^ a^o* 




y /\A ^ ^ "^ ^ 



^ 



ejj^^^M^ ^o^/^fy^vi 



